Tell Pro-Life Legislators to pass a clean Dream Act

The fate of nearly 800,000 Dreamers is in the hands of Congress. As supporters of the inherent dignity and worth of all human life, from conception to natural death, we call upon all pro-life members of Congress to pass a clean Dream Act and affirm that human lives must not be deliberately endangered in order to obtain political leverage.

On September 5, 2017, President Trump announced that his administration would phase out the popular DACA program, and gave Congress 6 months to pass alternative legislation in order to prevent the deportation of nearly 800,000 young law-abiding immigrants. DACA has allowed undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children to work legally in the United States without fear of deportation, and beneficiaries of the program include priests, police officers, teachers, parents, and countless other treasured members of our community.Fortunately, legislation to prevent their deportation has already been introduced to Congress. The Dream Act of 2017 would offer a path to permanent legal status for these immigrants and allow them to continue to contribute to their communities and to the only country most have ever called home.

Nevertheless, some members of Congress have indicated that support for a path to legalization would be conditioned upon support for various tangential objectives of the President. It is here that we, as pro-life advocates, object in the strongest possible terms. While we understand that it is common for legislators to compromise on various issues in order to reach a consensus, we are alarmed by the fact that the President appears to have deliberately endangered these 800,000 innocent people in order to obtain a stronger position at the bargaining table.

Such action demonstrates a callous disregard for the lives of these immigrants and calls into question the value that any of our lives will have in future legislative negotiations. As voters who affirm the inherent value and dignity of all human life, this is where we say enough.

In order to prevent the deliberate endangerment of human lives in exchange for legislative bargaining power, we as pro-life advocates urge all pro-life members of congress to support and pass the Dream Act without conditioning their support on other tangentially related projects. These issues can all be addressed in the future, but the time to protect Dreamers is now.

We therefore call upon all members of congress, especially those who affirm the dignity and value of all human life, to pass a clean Dream Act in order to protect our friends and neighbors from deportation and affirm the dignity and value of all human life.